A memoir about former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) time in office is to be published on Thursday, in which Ma touts his national development achievements and recognizes his mistakes during his eight years as president from 2008 to 2016.
The memoir, published by Taipei-based Commonwealth Publishing Co, was written by Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), who was the Presidential Office deputy secretary-general during the Ma administration, and is based on Ma’s oral accounts.
In the preface, Ma said that he was lucky to be elected twice, showing the trust of Taiwanese.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Since leaving office, he said that he has faced both enthusiastic sympathy and serious criticism from the public while visiting places across the nation, which prompted him to record what he experienced during his presidency as a form of self-reflection, and to assume responsibility for history.
However, he can say with a clear conscience that he was always a president with integrity, who loved his people and was hard-working, Ma said.
“However, there was indeed room for improvement in the drafting and implementation of some [of my] policies. I shall shoulder the criticism of the people,” he said in the book, adding that one can only stick their chest out again after they bow in humility.
Ma said the signing of accords with Japan and the Philippines settling fishery disputes that had existed for more than four decades was one of the most satisfactory things he achieved during his presidency.
The most regrettable thing during his presidency was the Sunflower movement of 2014, which resulted in the cross-strait service trade agreement being shelved, greatly jeopardizing Taiwan’s economic development, he said.
The book also contains a chapter about the “judicial persecution” he has faced after leaving the Presidential Office, as well as one that talks about his interactions with his predecessors and successor.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
RSS